Namdaemun.

It’s Hangul (Korean) for ‘Great South Gate’.

It’s 10-acres of part wholesale, part retail, part black market…and part whole ‘nother world.

Let’s start with the basics. This is NOT the place for:

• strollers
• wheelchairs
• little old ladies (or men, for that matter)
• toddling children
• or people on crutches

Granted, that’s my opinion – and those people could most definitely go, just expect to knocked-around – A LOT!

I’m still trying to reconcile the cultural differences, myself – but it would appear life in big-city Seoul is a lot different than life in little-bitty Anjung-Ri.

Take this little old woman, for exmple.

She is considered fair-game to bump into, knock around & run over without ever having to actually acknowledge that you were the one to plow right into her.

Yep, you read that right – fair game. I’ll explain a bit more in a sec, but take a look at her.

What I love most about her, is her smiling face. Now take a look at all the other faces in my pictures – nobody smiles.

Before we moved to Korea Eric & I went to several different briefings:

• They warned us we’d be bumped into for no real apparent reason other than the fact we were in the direct line of their path (they don’t step to the side or around you).
• They warned us there would be no apology for such an encounter – no matter if it was a quick brush or a full-on defensive-tackle style hit.
• And they warned the younger soldiers not to take it as an offense & do something stupid like start a fight.

So I went to Namdaemun expecting to be hit.

And I was.

Over…and over…and over.

It took some getting used to. At first I told myself, ‘Remember – this is their culture. It’s nothing personal.’

Yeah, that lasted about 2 hours until it really started to agitate me.

Even if I could find an out-of-the-way spot to get my bearings or to just stop to take a breath, I was still getting hit.

That whole…‘You’re standing right in my path’ thing.

What began to make me angry though was watching everyone – young, old or indifferent – run smack into these little old Korean women & not say a word of ‘excuse me’ or ‘oh, I’m so sorry!‘

I think it’s a Texas thing…or a Southern thing…or maybe just a common decency & good up-bringing thing….

But you don’t just run into someone & not acknowledge it!

(Are you kidding me? My mother would have a fit if she saw me do that.)

So like the obvious American, I was side-stepping or walking around or stopping to let people pass constantly.

I think I originally mentioned that I would be going with 44 other battalion wives – it turned out to be about 16 plus a couple husbands.

I didn’t know anyone & I would feel all of 14 if I had to speak up to say, ‘Hi, can I hang with you?’

I’m a grown woman. I’ve traveled by myself before. I’ve hiked mountains by myself. I’ve navigated downtown Seattle by myself. I could do this myself.

I’m not stupid – ok, not stupid that often – but I knew if I was going to navigate Namdaemun by myself I needed to stay out of the side alleys, keep my purse tucked firmly under my arm & keep my money out of sight.

Between constantly being vigilent of my personal space, constantly making sure I wasn’t going to bump into anyone and just in general being overwhelmed with the overall experience of the place, it all became a bit much to take in rather quickly.

There’s just so much crammed everywhere, up – down – underneath – overhead – it’s hard for your eyes to focus.

Add in the delivery/messenger men on their scooters racing through the streets and I was completely exhausted by the end of our 7 hour shopping extravaganza – which does not include the hour & a half bus ride both ways.

(But yeah, they don’t really stop either. Although I got really good at honing my spidey-hearing enough to know when to jump out of the way in a split-second.)

[more tomorrow]